


hard to find the words to tell

by sunflowerogers (orphan_account)



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, M/M, Slow Build, Work In Progress, clint works in a coffee shop, sam is a great best friend, steve has a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 13:37:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2111934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/sunflowerogers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>You’ve got to help me</i>, Steve texts Sam early Monday morning. Like, really early. The clock at the top of his phone reads 01:38 and Steve wonders if Sam would be awake when he shuts his phone off and puts it on the side table. He’s not surprised when his phone lights up with Sam’s message.</p><p>
  <i>What’s up?</i>
</p><p>Steve quickly picks his phone up, unlocks it and sends his reply: <i>The new guy across the hall from me</i></p><p>
  <i>What about him?</i>
</p><p>
  <i>He’s absolutely gorgeous</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	hard to find the words to tell

**Author's Note:**

> Title from _You & I_ by Crystal Fighters

Steve sits lazily on his couch listening to the radio and sketching in his moleskin when he hears seven knocks on the door. Seven knocks specifically. There’s one person Steve knows that knocks seven times every time he visits.

Steve walks over to the door, opens it and is immediately in Sam’s tight hug before he even thinks about the word ‘hello’.

“Nice to see you, buddy.” Sam says after pulling away. The smirk on his face is a warm sense of familiar with a hint of smugness.

“You too.” Steve smiles and steps aside to let Sam in. They both sit on Steve’s couch and kind of look at each other for a while, not really knowing what to start talking about.

It’s a minute before Sam speaks up. “So.”

Oh. Uh. “So.” Yeah good enough.

“You gonna tell me about this guy or not?” Sam playfully shoves at Steve’s shoulder and Steve laughs.

“I don’t know him well enough to even tell you anything about him.”

“That’s know what I meant, dumbass. I meant what does he look like?”

“Oh, right.” Steve takes a deep breath. “Like an angel.” Sam snorts and that has got to be the ugliest sound Steve has heard Sam make. “He’s very fit, oh God. His hair is just so—“ Steve makes an enormous flailing movement with his arms, hoping Sam understands. He doesn’t, really, judging by the confused expression on his face. “His lips too, my goodness—“

“Alright, lover boy, calm down.” Sam chuckles. “Do you even know his name?”

“No, of course not.” Steve rolls his eyes. “He moved in yesterday. From what I’ve heard from next door, his name is something unusual. Starts with ‘b’ I’m pretty sure.”

“Hmm…” Sam scratches his chin, deep in thought. As if he’d know the guy’s name. Sam lives four blocks away and the news that there’s a new guy living in the twenty-sixth room on the fifth floor wouldn’t spread that far. Except for the fact that Steve had texted him last night about the whole situation.

“Sounds like a handsome guy.” Sam finishes.

Handsome? Please. If there was a scale of attractiveness of New Guy, handsome would be one of the lowest levels. Steve’s not even exaggerating.

“Yeah.” is all that comes out of Steve’s mouth.

“Promise me you’ll find out this guy’s name before Saturday?”

Saturday. That’s four days away.

“Promise.” Shit. What’s going through Steve’s head? Steve can hardly order coffee let alone find out a hot guy’s name.

“Excellent. Would you consider asking him out for a drink?” Sam asks.

“No way. I don’t deserve that kind of guy.” Steve blushes and his chin touches his chest.

“Are you kidding? Have you seen you?” Sam gestures to Steve’s body.

“Enough times.” Steve mumbles just loud enough for Sam to hear.

Sam scoffs. “What kind of guy wouldn’t go for you?”

Steve smirks. “Straight ones.” and Sam almost falls off the chair cackling. They both have tears in their eyes when their sides and faces hurt too much to laugh any more.

Sam wipes his eyes with his thumb and sighs, the aftershocks of his laughter still coming through between his words. “Good point.”

After dinner, Sam says goodbye and leaves. Steve’s too full and tried to do anything and ends up falling asleep on the couch.

 

 

“There’s a what?” Clint demands as he pours Steve his regular long black coffee for the morning down at his favourite coffee shop. It makes Steve chuckle thinking of Sam’s off expression when he drinks it every time they have coffee together. ‘You’re an alien’ Sam has said to him on every one of those occasions.

“A new guy upstairs,” Steve replies in a calm tone, which is difficult when he starts talking about his extremely attractive neighbour. “He’s across from me. Room five twenty-six.”

“Is he hot?” Clint makes this really stupid smirk and Steve laughs.

“Why would you wanna know?” Steve asks, little chuckles between his words, “You’ve got the most beautiful girl for a girlfriend.”

“Nat doesn’t have anything to do with this important conversation.”

“Ha. Important.” Very. “Anyway, it’s not like y—“ Steve gasps, throwing his hand over his mouth for dramatic effect. Clint raises an eyebrow, afraid Steve was choking on his own spit. Not that that’s unlikely to happen to him. It’s happened more than once; all of which times were very embarrassing.

“What?” Clint asks.

“Unless you’re…coming out as a gay man?” Steve whispers through his fingers.

Clint nearly dies. No, really. Steve knew that gum in his mouth was a hazard to the poor guy. Steve stands up, ready to give him the Heimlich manoeuvre when Clint raises his hand and shakes his head. As Steve sits back down, Clint just swallows the gum. One of his co-workers gives him a glass of water which he downs immediately.

“I don’t know whether to be offended or amused.” Steve crosses his eyebrows and takes a gentle sip of his still-very-hot coffee.

“Sorry buddy,” Clint says after he gets his breath back, “just a matter of coincidence.” Steve laughs at Clint’s very red face.

“It’s okay.” Steve says.

“So,” Clint goes back to making that stupid smirk, “back to my earlier question which to seems to avoid answering. Is the new guy hot or not?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Steve blushes.

“You little shit.” Steve scowls at him. “And he’s been here for how long exactly?” Clint asks with a hint of smugness in his voice.

“Three days today.”

“Gee, Steve. You’re really into it aren’t you.” It’s hardly a question and Steve just hums in agreement. “When did you get a peek?”

Steve scoffs and flushes red again. God, he did more than peek. Steve thinks he might have stared for just a little too long at the new guy across the hall. “ He was carrying the couch inside with another guy…” Steve trails off thinking of New Guy’s arms… _damn._

Clint coughed.

“Sorry.”

“You jealous of the other guy?”

“What? No! He was probably the mover guy. You know,  one of those people you hire to help—“

“Yeah, I know, Steve. I’m not as stupid as I look.”

Steve laughs. “And you do look pretty stupid.”

“Thanks Steve, I do try my hardest.” Clint adjusts an invisible tie and Steve shakes his head. “Right, well, I better go and help someone else. I’ll get kicked off if I don’t.”

“Alright. Thanks for the coffee, man.”

“No problem. Talk to you later.”

Steve waves as soon as his phone buzzes in the pocket of his jeans. He swiftly pulls it out and rolls his eyes when he reads Sam’s contact name on the screen. He unlocks his phone and reads the message.

**_Four days and counting, Rogers_ **

Steve laughs and texts back: **_It’ll happen before you know it_**

And probably before Steve knows it too.

 

 

"How's the weather? Are you staying safe?" Bucky's mother asks him with a seriously worried tone over the phone late that night. Honestly, Bucky doesn't see why his mother really needs to worry about her twenty-six year old son, even though he moved out six years prior. Sure, Bucky finds it a little silly, but he loves his mother, and can see the reasoning behind all of it.

"The weather's great, mom, and yes, I'm staying safe. I haven't broken any bones." Bucky joked and heard his mother's soft laugh on the other end of the line.

"I'm glad to hear it. I'll call you again soon, okay?"

"Sure thing." Bucky says goodbye and hangs up, setting his phone down on the bench in his kitchen. The fruit sitting in its bowl behind him hasn't been touched since Bucky had moved in, so he grabbed the freshest looking banana and peeled it open, taking one bite off the top. Suddenly, Bucky hears a loud crashing sound and a angry yell from across the hall. Bucky isn't exactly the type to sneak around and peep into his neighbours' places, but this guy sounded really hurt. Bucky abandons his banana to the trash can and runs out his door and across the hall.

Bucky's over at the sound source's apartment when he hears another smash. _Gee, it sounds expensive,_ Bucky thinks to himself. He knocks on the door, it opens, and he looks up to greet his neighbour when- _oh._

Bucky almost chokes on his own spit.

The guy who's leaning against the doorway is tall and fit. Very. Fit. His biceps strain against his button up blue shirt which he has rolled up to his elbows. The face is simultaneously strong and delicate, and his eyes match the shade of his shirt perfectly, almost glinting with excitement or something. His hair is straw-blond, wet with sweat or shower water and falls over his forehead. The smile playing on his lips in welcoming and suggesting something more, Bucky can't quite tell. 

"Hi."

 _Fuck_. "Uh, hi, I came to see if you were alright?" Bucky clears his throat when his voice changes pitch dramatically and continues. "Sounded like you were having trouble with...something."

"Oh, it's fine. I was putting some dishes back and a couple smashed on the floor." His voice is deep with a heavy Brooklyn accent.

"Oh, okay. Did you need some, uh," Bucky clears his throat again when his voice pitches, "help?"

"Yeah, thanks." The guy smiles. "I'm Steve, by the way." _Thank God_.

"It's alright. I'm Buc-" Bucky stops. "I mean, my name's James but everyone calls me Bucky. Except my mother."

Steve laughs and it's like the sun peeping out from behind a shy cloud. "Okay, Bucky, come in."

Bucky hesitates before Steve steps aside to let Bucky in. Immediately, his eyes sweep over the mess of shattered white ceramic on the kitchen floor and he gasps. Steve just laughs, closes the door and leads Bucky to the pile of what used to be a couple of plates and bowls.

"What exactly did you do to cause this?"

Steve chuckles at the horrified look on Bucky's face and sighs. "I told you, I was putting them away and the stacks were crooked. I tried to organise them, but as we can both  _clearly_ see," Steve gestured to the mess, "I failed. Miserably."

"You certainly did." Bucky smiles at Steve and Steve smiles back. For a moment, everything pauses.

Then Steve coughs and crouches to pick up two dust pans from the cupboard, giving one to Bucky. They clean up for a while, not really saying much; Bucky being too shy to start a good conversation. The two of them finish in half an hour and the broken ceramic is in the bin.

Bucky heads towards the towards the door, Steve close behind.

"Hey, thanks for helping me out tonight."

Bucky turns when he's standing in the doorway. Steve's leaning against the door again and damn it, it should  _not_ be such a turn on.

"You're welcome, anytime." Bucky smiles and starts to head back to his apartment when Steve calls to him again.

"See you again soon?"

Bucky's breath catches in his throat when Steve smiles so wide, his eyes crinkle at the sides.

"Sure." Bucky waves and the door closes.  _Will I see him again?_ Bucky thinks to himself.  _Hopefully, yes._

 

 

 


End file.
